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The unsettling origin of ‘drink the Kool-Aid’

Every weekday, PR Daily associate editor Alan Pearcy highlights the day’s most compelling stories and amusing marginalia on the Web in this, #TheDailySpin.

Jargon haunts our offices. It skulks through cubicles, materializes at water coolers without warning, and makes its bone-chilling presence known at almost every meeting. And now it appears one of the most common buzz phrases has rather macabre origins. Curious of where the catchphrase “drink the Kool-Aid” originated, the magazine mental_floss dug through some history books to find that the popular expression dates back to the grisly mass suicide of the “Jonestown Massacre” in 1978. And get this: It’s not even branded correctly. According to reports, members of the Jonestown cult drank a poisonous mixture of Flav-R-Aid. However, the Kool-Aid name was more widely known.

I’m not sure whether Mad magazine founder William M. Gaines had much trouble being misidentified, but it’s a safe bet that a number of the vintage advertisements he ran in his publication were mistaken for the real deal. Gaines, reports Adweek, refused to allow actual ads in the magazine. This led to the creation of some pretty intricate, and often better parodies by his staff of writers, many of which can be found in this collection on Flickr.

Meanwhile, it might appear the Dallas Maverick Dancers have downsized, at least as far as its uniforms are concerned. Showing not everything is bigger in Texas, Yahoo! Sports reports that the “briefness” of the frock could raise a few eyebrows.

Raise isn’t exactly the direction in which sales for McDonald’s have gone recently, as the Golden Arches showed signs of tarnish Thursday when reporting a decline in monthly U.S. same store sales for the first time in nine years. "McDonald's has been taking share from everyone for many, many years," Peter Saleh, a New York-based analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, told Advertising Age. The competition is "fighting back a little bit," with a number of its rivals adding new menu items.

However, Ronald and friends needn’t worry too long. According to a trend forecast by BurgerBusiness.com, 2013 will be the “Year of the Bun.”

I don’t know if I fully buy that prediction, though. I’d rather ask “the human Wikipedia,” otherwise known as Steve Ellison.

Perhaps Steve’s memory wouldn’t be so sharp after a few Budweiser “Black Crowns,” the Anheuser Busch InBev brand’s new, stronger beer. Planned for an early 2013 release, the new brew will have 6 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) compared to the 5 percent ABV found in a standard Budweiser.

I’m sure Budweiser tested its product first, but if not, it could always consider crowdsourcing a taste test. That’s the idea behind online startup Kraggle. Reports the Harvard Business Review, the company “assembles a diverse group of people from around the world to work on tough problems submitted by organizations,” essentially crowdsourcing product fixes.

Is there something you think we should include in our next edition of #TheDailySpin? Tweet me @iquotesometimes with your suggestions. Thanks in advance.